Sustainable Art Prize

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in collaboration with ArtVerona has launched the the fifth edition of the Sustainable Art Prize for artists and collectives of artists reflecting issues of social, economics and environmental sustainability through art to tackle major global challenges in line with the 17 goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development promoted by the UN. Artists can find the registration form on the Italian webpage.

The 2022 edition of the Prize is the result of a collaboration with Iuav University of Venice, University of Padua and University of Verona. The universities will be part of the jury and will collaborate at the realization of the winner project, together with the artists and students.

Award

The call for applications is open to all artists participating in the 2022 edition of ArtVerona. In order to participate, artists and/or art galleries are requested to submit the following form and send it to sustainableartprize@unive.it by September, 30, 2022. Candidates can include additional documents such as their CV, portfolio, description of the project.

The prize entails the construction of an installation, an exhibition or a performance which relates to sustainability, to be hosted at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in Autumn 2023.

The construction of the project will involve students from these four universities, while the artists will work in a new environment collaborating with the university communities - a unique opportunity of dialogue between art and research.

The prize falls within the projects of Art&Sustainability of Ca’ Foscari and shows the commitment of Ca’ Foscari towards sustainable development issues by presenting them in a new innovative way, including emotional investment that characterizes art.

The winner obtains a budget of € 5,000.00 for the completion of his project.

The jury of the fifth edition of the Sustainable Art Prize is composed by:

  • Elena Semenzin (President) - professor of Environmental Chemistry and Cultural Heritage, Ca' Foscari University of Venice
  • Laura Nota - professor of Psychological Counseling and Inclusion Psychology, University of Padua
  • Valeria Tatano - professor of Architecture Technology, Iuav University of Venice
  • Matteo Nicolini - professor of Comparative Public Law, University of Verona
  • Christian Malycha - a German art historian, curatorial director of the Friedrichs Foundation, Bonn/Weidingen

Winner of the Sustainable Art Prize 2022

On Saturday 15th October 2022 the winner of the fifth edition of the Sustainable Art Prize was named at ArtVerona. In 2023, the winning artist will realise an artistic project that targets one, or more, of the 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals, by working in close contact with students of the four universities of the Veneto region.

Highlights

The jury assigned the Sustainable Art Prize 2022 to the artist Laura Pugno represented by Peola Simondi art gallery. Laura Pugno’s artistic experiences are expressed through evolving styles and several techniques. This characterizes an aesthetical ripeness achieved by a research work on the relationship between human beings and the environment which values themes related to the action of the 2030 Agenda that are usually left in the background. By taking science as her starting point, Pugno’s artistic production gives back an alternative awareness of reality and highlights the brainwashing related to cultural rules. The artist already has various experiences of joint participation with the academic world and the jury believes that this could be the basis for a wide cooperative project with the students and research community of Veneto's universities.

Winner of the Sustainable Art Prize 2021

On Saturday 16th October 2021 at the ArtVerona fair, the winner of the fourth edition of the Sustainable Art Prize was named. In 2022, the winner, together with Ca' Foscari students, will create an art project at Ca' Foscari focused on one or more of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.

Highlights

The jury decided to award the Prize to Post Disaster collective, presented at ArtVerona in the section LAB 1, which presented at the fair a work moved from the post-industrial condition of Taranto to embrace the Mediterranean basin in a reflection on the challenges of resilience. Post Disaster convinced thanks to its ability to create a connections between different territorial realities by exploiting the frame of a language between the use of public space and rigorous archival practise. In particular, the collective impressed the jury for the creative intelligence and social sensibility with which their work addresses the issues of geographical peripheries and the need for redemption of their humanity.  In the collective’s work it clearly emerges how, through partecipation practises pursued with balance between planning and ephemeral, it is possible to create prolific comparisons in the urban, social and environmental context. Post Disaster presented at the fair an idea of a lived sustainability, intrinsic in the processes of reconsideration of our reality, which finds complete relevance to the themes promoted by Ca’ Foscari and to the venetian territory in general, so much so that it can generate an intresting sharing with the entire university community for the proposal of new ways of interconnecting local and global at the service of sustainable development.

On Sunday 13th October the winner of the Sustainable Art prize 2019 was named. The jury named the artist Gayle Chong Kwan, presented at ArtVerona by Galleria Alberta Pane with establishments in Venice.

Gayle Chong Kwan has convinced for her solid and visionary poetics that is fully in line with the objectives of the award promoted by Ca’ Foscari. In particular, she impressed the jury because the thematics she deals with in her projects - such as the reuse of food waste and their artistic translation– match with the discussion around the fragile balance that characterizes our contemporary realities. For Gayle Chong Kwan, waste is never an end in itself or decontextualized, but a vibrant and vital question that has its roots in the modus vivendi of our society.

Highlights

On Sunday October 14th the winner of the Sustainable Art prize 2018 was named. The jury named the artist Paolo Ciregia, presented at ArtVerona by gallery L'Elefante with establishments in Treviso.

Ciregia has convinced by its ability to seize the urgencies linked to sustainable development in urban contexts and the ability to investigate immediately the conflicts and contradictions mounting in our daily life through a process of crystallization and unveiling that manages to reactivate the gaze, engage the viewer and spread awareness.

Highlights

The jury named the collective made up of artists Sasha Vinci and Maria Grazia Galesi, presented at ArtVerona by gallery aA29 Project Room with establishments in Caserta, Milan, Prague, on the following criteria: the interpretation of the concept of sustainability, the aesthetic maturity of the project and the capacity to share the concept and involve the community.

The artists’ dedication to deal with environmental, social and political sustainability was met with enthusiasm as well as their capacity to translate their commitment in an aesthetically interesting project that was particularly striking in a communication perspective, and their honest community involvement, one of the key features of their projects.

On Sunday October 15th the winner of the Sustainable Art prize 2017 was named.
The 2017 jury was made up of the President Fabio Pranovi, Rector’s Delegate for sustainability, journalist Riccarda Mandrini, curator Carlo Sala and art historian Diego Mantoan as Secretary.

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Last update: 14/02/2024